Godzilla made his movie debut in 1954 and has been tearing through cities alternatively saving us or thrashing us since then. Traditionally, he’s a
huge prehistoric, amphibious monster who was originally awoken by nuclear bombings and moved on to attack Japan. He has always been a reaction to humanity’s
destructive tendencies, and is often layered in thematic references. His first appearance was a commentary on the dangers of nuclear weapons. Here, he's definitely a response to the climate crisis. From his original appearance, he became
incredibly popular and shifted from villain to hero. He would go on to fight various other kaiju
(giant monsters) including Anguirus, Gigan, King Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra, and
most notably King Kong in 1962.
Incidentally in that movie, both fell off a cliff at the end of their
final battle, with only Kong surfacing to swim back to his island home. There was no sign of Godzilla, but of course
he returned in another movie.
In 2014, director Gareth Edwards gave us a very serious
big-time reboot featuring a Godzilla that looked more like the original (like a
dude in a suit – which is really what we want). It was the first movie in Legendary’s
MonsterVerse. In his 12 minutes of
screen time, Godzilla helped Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver defeat some other
kaijus referred to as MUTOs. It also
introduced Monarch, a shady company that seems to be all about keeping tabs on
kaijus.
Kong: Skull Island brought
Monarch to King Kong’s island in the 70s where Sam Jackson tried to kill him
and John C. Reilley, Tom Hiddleston, and Brie Larson tried to save him. That movie is referenced many times in this
movie, building to next summer’s showdown Kong versus Godzilla. That is reportedly mostly a Skull Island
sequel. I’m not sure how I feel about
that, it seems to lean towards Godzilla being the heavy, and I’m on team Godzilla
all the way. After that, we’re going to
get another Godzilla sequel, which is good, because we know he’ll be back to
the hero.
In this movie, we join Monarch as they are being chastised
by the military. Essentially, the military wants to take over Monarch and use
their intelligence to destroy all the ‘titans’.
Monarch’s brass is arguing that the titans are here to restore balance,
and since the majority of them are in hibernation anyway, let’s just let them
be. Monarch is keeping tabs on
hibernating titans all over the globe, researching their previous appearances
through stories and ancient pictures.
Dr. Emma Russell is working for Monarch and keeping tabs on
a sleeping larval Mothra while her daughter Madison keeps reaching out to her
estranged father, Mark. Mark used to
also work for Monarch apparently, but left after he and Emma lost a son in San
Francisco in 2014 during Godzilla’s battle with the MUTOs. Emma has developed a machine called the Orca
that uses audio recordings of titans in order to create an ‘alpha’ sound to
keep the titans at bay, calm, or drawn towards her. It has different effects
throughout the course of the movie.
Mothra wakes up, gets scared when folks point guns at her, but then is
soothed by Emma’s recording of the alpha noise – enough to let Madison pet her
giant moth head. Of course at that
point, a group of eco-terrorist mercenaries lead by Jonah Allen burst in,
frighten Mothra, and take Emma and Madison.
Mothra takes off to cocoon herself under a waterfall, as per usual.
Monarch goes to Mark to tell him what happened and get him
to help find the Orca, which in turn should find Emma and Madison. Mark’s a bit furious at all this and sides
with the military in terms of wanting to kill all the titans, but shifts his
opinion pretty quickly. Allen and his
crew head down to Antarctica to wake up Monster Zero – who is actually King
Ghidorah. It turns out their plan is to
wake up all the titans to ‘cleanse’ the earth of the disease that is
humanity. Monarch was hoping one or two
might wake up here or there to restore balance, but Allen and company are going
to go a bit titan-crazy. The problem is,
Ghidorah is not like the others, and once he wakes up, things go bad quickly. Luckily, Godzilla is still around to attempt
to keep him in check.
The movie is directed by Michael Dogherty, who is mostly a
writer but did direct Trick ‘r Treat. He
brings a great sense of epic action to this pure popcorn flick which I much
prefer to the 2014 version. There’s a
ton more monster action here, and that’s what I want. In a Godzilla movie, I
honestly don’t much care what the humans are up to - I’m here for the monster
action. That being said, the ‘plot’ is a
little contrived and some of the performances are a little less than. But overall, most of the humans know what
movie they are in and are having an absolute blast.
- Vera Farmiga plays Dr. Emma Russell and I was pleased with her through the movie. She’s making some questionable choices for the right reasons, and bound and determined to do what she can to save her family and the planet.
- Kyle Chandler plays Mark Russell and I still picture him as the guy who was getting tomorrow’s paper today, regardless of what other football things he did. I wish he was having a little more fun in this – he’s great, but he’s taking it very seriously. Of course, his role doesn’t leave much room for fun, so perhaps he made the right call.
- Here we come to what might be an unpopular opinion – Millie Bobbie Brown plays their daughter Madison, and I found her completely useless in this movie. The character seemed so unnecessary. Everything that Emma and Mark do would have exactly the same impact if she wasn’t there, and anything she did could have been done by Emma with the same results. Not her fault, she was fine staring around in shock for the whole time, but honestly, did not need this character.
- Ken Watanabe returns as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa from the previous Godzilla movie. He’s still Godzilla’s number one fan, and gets some up close and personal time with him here. Watanabe knows exactly what movie he’s making and plays it just a bit over the top in the most perfect way. Sally Hawkins returns as Dr. Vivienne Graham, and she’s there to remind everyone that the titans are fulfilling a purpose, right until she gets eliminated – sorry, spoiler alert.
- Ziyi Zhang plays Dr. Ilene Chen and Dr. Ling – twins! Which if you know anything about Mothra, is not a surprise to you. Mothra always had two twin fairies with her to translate through song her greatness, or something like that.
- Bradley Whitford plays Dr. Rick Stanton and steals every damn scene he is in. This is a guy who understands the movie and spends a lot of time yelling at computer screens in the best possible way.
- Charles Dance plays Jonah Allen and is equally as creepy and menacing as he always is. It’s a little hard to buy him as a guy who wants to save anything - even if it is the planet and not the people.
- Thomas Middleditch plays Monarch employee Sam Coleman. I love Middleditch – but again, he seems to be an unnecessary character. There are a ton of humans in this movie, and some of them really have nothing to do.
- Aisha Hinds plays Colonel Diane Foster, and she’s there to make sure the military folks are in line and doing what needs to be done.
- O’Shea Jackson Jr. plays Chief Warrant Officer Barnes, and he’s there to be the audience representative – being shocked at the monsters and cracking jokes.
- David Strathairn returns as Admiral William Stenz, and his main purpose – aside from trying to kill all the titans – is to release an ‘oxygen killer’ missile that will kill Ghidorah and Godzilla while they fight – at least, that’s what he thinks. You know that’s a bad plan.
- Joe Morton pops up briefly as the older version of Dr. Houston Brooks – the character Corey Hawkins played in Skull Island. My guess is that he will have a larger role in Kong vs. Godzilla. You don’t just have Joe Morton there for 3 minutes for no reason.
In the credits, Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra and Rodan
are listed as themselves, so here we are.
You can get details on all the monsters at MonarchSciences.com.
- Once Mothra comes out of her cocoon, she is simply stunning. She’s 52 feet tall with a wingspan of 803 feet, and apparently, she’s about sprinkling bio-luminescent rays from above to help Godzilla when he needs it. She's also pretty badass in a fight, and not above using her very pointy legs to get the job done when necessary.
- Rodan is very pteradon–like and living in a volcano in Mexico. He’s 154 feet tall with a 871 foot wingspan. He's here to spread firey destruction and is far more mobile in the air than I remember him being. Also, he's a bit of a punk and will follow whoever is in charge at the time.
- King Ghidorah is the 521 foot tall three-headed two-tailed space dragon who gives Godzilla a run for his money as the alpha. The center head and body is performance capture and really makes a difference in the visuals. Ghidorah is pissed when he is awoken, and sets about calling everybody to wake them up and reign destruction on the planet. He’s mean, vicious, travels in his own hurricane, and does not care about you or your helicopter or your baseball stadium.
- Finally to our star, Godzilla. He’s even bigger and more muscle-y in this version at 393 feet. It’s the second largest he’s ever been. He’s also performance capture, which gives the fights more impact as well as the standing around bits. He definitely looks like a dude in a suit, but even better, his eyebrows give him a bit more facial expressions. When he’s tired, you can tell – when he’s surprised, you can see that too. When he’s angry at the end, man, you can definitely see that. The scene where he stares down Ghidorah over Boston and then sprints toward him at a full run is still one of the best things I have ever seen. Godzilla is awesome and absolutely beautiful in this movie that cements him as the King of Monsters. Kong who?
Overall, the movie is a ton of fun, exactly what you expect,
and a near-perfect popcorn flick. Don’t
think about the science too much, just enjoy the visuals. Yes, there are too
many human characters, so some really get shortchanged on story, but that’s
okay. Maybe they’ll be back in the next
one!
9 out of 10 – fantastic and fun.
Sidenote - Godzilla is an incredible cultural icon and one of Japan's most popular exports, he's even got a star on the walk of fame! I will be sorely disappointed if he does not feature in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics opening ceremonies next summer in some way or form!
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